The energy boom is responsible for bringing many jobs and people to the Houston area. It is also responsible for bringing a fair share of recruitment companies and headhunters to Houston to help companies search for the much needed talent to fill key positions across all energy sectors.

One such company is London-based Spencer Ogden Inc., which specializes in global energy recruitment, and opened its Houston office in 2011.

Edward Ogden, director of the company's Houston office, says that expanding to Houston was a logical move for the company, because at the time their Aberdeen office was booming, and their London office had been interviewing people who worked in the U.S., but were actually transacting in Houston.

"There were English recruiters working on behalf of U.S. companies and placing geologists, reservoir engineers, production engineers, and completion engineers into American companies from the U.K.," Ogden said. "So I saw that there was a huge opportunity to bring our skillset and what we do to Houston, which has proven to be great and I am enjoying every minute of being out here."

Spencer Ogden started with a small office in the Energy Corridor, but due to continued growth has since moved downtown to a larger space located inside the BG building.

"We incorporated in March 2011 in a small office in the Energy Corridor, and with some of the successes of the areas that we developed in the drilling market, we got some traction and decided that this was going to be a large hub for us. We have about 40 people in Houston, but that's going to increase next year," Ogden said.

Since opening its Houston office, Spencer Ogden has made job placements of people who have had to relocate across the country, as well as placing local candidates with jobs here in Houston.

In terms of the biggest shortages of workers and the specific talent needed to fill current positions in the oil and gas industry, Ogden said that they are seeing a shortage of talent across the entire energy sector.

"The oil and gas industry is quite cyclical and certain personnel are needed based on what the companies are doing with their production and exploration. At the moment, we are seeing a lot of requirements for top people in the area of production and completions," he said.

With drilling contracting placement, the Houston office supplies all of the staff for oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, while their other offices do the same globally.

"This is one of the things that companies like to use us for, because when they have these temporary rigs they want to staff them up rather quickly. In contract placement, that is where we move people across the world more," he said.

Ogden said these contract positions can vary in length, generally anywhere from a couple of weeks to two years. He said a lot of the oil and gas companies have a headcount that they want to maintain, so they tend to hire project-based contract workers, which is why the contract-based work is such a strong area of recruitment for his company.

In addition to the challenge of recruiting and hiring key talent within the energy sector, companies also face talent retention issues as competition continues to heat up. As such, companies commonly implement various strategies that enable the organization to stay competitive in the marketplace.

For many companies, according to Ogden, the strategies for employee retention has a lot to do with the size of the company in terms of the different incentives that they are able to offer their employees.

He said that many smaller companies have great long-term incentives, while the bigger companies may be able to offer larger salaries.

Additionally, Ogden said companies typically make counteroffers to employees in order to retain them.

"It's a lot cheaper for them to meet the expectations of that candidate than to lose him or her and go through the whole cycle of hiring again. We are seeing that candidates are getting counteroffers and that has in some areas driven up base salaries."

As for 2014, Ogden is optimistic about the future growth of his company and the continued need to recruit global talent in Houston.